The three obvious answers are yes, no, and maybe. I’ll start with an easy yes. You see, as adjunct faculty, that’s what I do. Yesterday, I finished “teaching” a three-hour course in the entrepreneurship program of the Cox School of Business at SMU. The course’s title was Leading a Growing Company; so literally, I just […]
At 21, I remember thinking, “Now, I’m free from the worry of getting into trouble for having a glass of champagne at a wedding.” I felt victorious for skirting any potential recriminations for drinking when it wasn’t legal to do so, although back in those days, the consequences for underage drinking didn’t feel nearly as […]
Marriott’s a big name, a brand many people are comfortable with. I am not. Here’s why: Their employees are not empowered to use common sense when to do so trumps rules and regulations. For example, during a recent stay over New Year’s eve in Ft. Lauderdale, I was about to turn in early when the […]
Kudos to Harvard for asking a provacative question and delivering an even more compelling answer. The question I reference was posed six years ago by three B-school professors among them Rosabeth Moss Kanter, ” How might the mission of a university change in the 21st century?” The answer is even better than the question, “Throw […]
A fully sighted company anticipates and “sees” the obvious and the not-so-obvious events, dynamics, and influences that are critical to success versus ignoring it. According to author Margaret Heffernan who wrote Willfull Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril says such blindness happens when there are things we should know, could know, but […]
When asked to prove if something is true or false, people tend to focus on confirming “the rule” as stated, rather than falsifying it. Humm that’s sort of a brain twister, isn’t it? As a result, even supposedly smart people can be quite illogical. That is, according to research psychologist Keith Stanovich, a prof […]
If you don’t define yourself, others will. This often-quoted concept is not one I thought particularly applicable to military officers until I read the May 2010 Vanity Fair article on General David Petraeus, a man I’d never thought too much about. Sitting on an airplane headed to a conference to Ft. Lauderdale, I learned […]
My idea of a cool “toy,” is anything that shows me how to do something I couldn’t do before and expands my thinking. Such toys are rare, which is why I’m excited about my newest purchase. HeartMath is a heart-research and product company whose newsletters I’ve been following on-line for years. Founder Doc Childre […]
If I hear one more technical support person parrot, “I apologize,” and not mean it at all, I may run for Congress on a platform to hold all call center executives accountable for consumer torture. Surely, I am not the only person in this country who is sick and tired of being treated as if […]
On a recent trip to the Mexican coastal town Zihautanejo, getting through security at Dallas Ft. Worth was reasonable. Coming back was another story. At the airport, before we were allowed to check in at the reservations desk, all bags and passengers were searched carefully one by one. Then, I was required to check […]